1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hollow aluminum bats and more specifically to hollow aluminum softball bats and to an improved core insert placed within a portion of said hollow, aluminum softball bat. Still more specifically, this invention relates to a core insert that will enable the user to obtain greater impact and bat kinetic energy when striking a ball with the bat and will dampen the noise that can be associated therewith.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Aluminum softball bats are legion in number and design. Most aluminum softball bats are hollow and comprise a gripping handle portion and a barrel portion, with the barrel portion being larger in diameter than the gripping handle. This type of softball bat is conventionally manufactured by separately forming the gripping handle and barrel portion (the hitting portion) and then joining the handle to the barrel. It is desirable to hit the ball with the barrel portion of the bat and thus there have been a host of prior art devices that are can be added to the design and manufacture of these bats and that purport to improve the use thereof. These prior art elements are or can be added within the hollow core of the barrel portion element or, alternatively, they can be added somewhere else within or on the outside of the bat itself. These elements are said to conserve the kinetic energy during the swinging of the bat and transfer that energy to the ball as it is hit by the bat. Additionally, some of the prior art elements are said to aid in the rebounding of the ball off of the bat and thus are said to improve the distance which the ball will travel when hit by the bat. Foams and other fillers have also been used to fill up portions of the hollow aluminum bats and thus dampen the vibration and noise made when a hollow, aluminum bat strikes another object such as a softball. Still other elements, when added to the aluminum softball bat, are said to improve the elastic deflection of the bat and thus increase the power when the bat is used to hit a ball, for example. Some of these prior art elements are inserted within the hollow portion of the barrel and are either metal or plastic and are said to add some "spring" to the bat itself. Most of the prior art insert elements, however, suffer from great disadvantages and begin to lose the "spring" after considerable use. Thus, the ball will start to lose distance when the "spring" diminishes and there is a pressing need to provide an improved element that can be inserted within the hollow portion of the bat easily and will last longer and impart a greater amount of "spring" to the bat when used to strike a softball, for example.